Mallya has been summoned on August 27.
In further tightening of noose around Vijay Mallya, special PMLA court has summoned the businessman on August 27 under the newly promulgated economic offenders ordinance.
The move comes at a time when Mallya has expressed his desire to payback the pending bank loans saying that he is trying to negotiate with the consortium of banks in good faith. He has also taken strong offence to be called fugitive saying he is willing to payback the money by selling his assets.
Earlier Enforcement Directorate (ED) moved court against liquor baron Vijay Mallya seeking to declare him a 'fugitive offender' and to confiscate his assets worth Rs 12,500 crore.
The newly promulgated Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance, empowers it to confiscate "all linked assets" of an absconding loan defaulter.
Loan defalter Vijay Mallya on Tuesday said that he is ready to settle all his dues with the banks and wants to return to India. According to him, he was ready to pay the dues earlier and had written a letter to PM Narendra Modi also but did not get cooperation from the government. Mallya said he wrote a letter to PM Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on April 15, 2016 but did not receive any reply. On Wednesday, he took to Twitter to inform that he had appealed Karnataka High Court seeking approval to sell his assets worth Rs 13,900 crore.
He also said he is not a fugitive and 'always had honest intentions' to repay his loans.
He informed that he and United Breweries Group (UBHL) have filed an application in the Karnataka High Court on June 22, 2018, setting out available assets of approximately Rs 13,900 crores. He said they have asked the court for permission to allow the sale of assets under judicial supervision and repay creditors, including the Public Sector Banks such amounts as may be directed and determined by the Court.
ED seeks to "confiscate all the properties of Vijay Mallya including those properties indirectly controlled by him." The application said the "estimated value of properties proposed for confiscation is to the tune of Rs 12,500 crore approximately, which includes immovable properties as well as movable properties in form of shares." The action has been taken in pursuance of two bank loan money laundering cases of over Rs 9,000 crore involving the IDBI bank and a SBI-led consortium and these became predicate offences for the latest action under the Ordinance brought by the Modi government early this year.
The ED, in the application, furnished evidences that it filed as part of its two charge sheets against Mallya and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and stated that in both cases, non-bailable warrants have been issued against Mallya by the court.
This is first case filed by the ED, empowered to execute this Ordinance in the country, and the agency will soon undertake the same action against absconding designer diamond jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, accused in the USD 2 billion PNB fraud case, apart from other such big bank loan defaulters, they said.
The government brought the fugitive ordinance as "there have been instances of economic offenders fleeing the jurisdiction of Indian courts, anticipating the commencement, or during the pendency, of criminal proceedings." The agency charged in its application that Mallya "had no intention to repay the loans from the start and though he and Ms UBHL (United Breweries Holdings Limited) had substantial assets that were sufficient to repay the loans, they intentionally withheld the details from the banks." It alleged that a "criminal conspiracy was hatched from inception" by Mallya and his firms to obtain loans in "gross violation" of established procedures.
"The investigation under PMLA also revealed several instances of diversion of funds at the behest and for the benefit of Mallya through Ms Kingfisher Airlines," it said. The agency said it has attached assets worth over Rs 8,040 crore of Mallya and others under the PMLA in the past.
Two criminal complaints were filed by the ED in these instances after taking cognisance of CBI FIRs. Mallya is contesting the money laundering charges in London as part of India's efforts to extradite him from there and face the legal system here in connection with an alleged loan default of over Rs 9,000 crore of various banks. As per the existing process of law under the PMLA, the ED could confiscate the assets only after the trial in a case finishes which usually takes many years.
With PTI inputs
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